Cloud computing refers to the use of dynamically scalable computing resources accessible via a network, such as the Internet. The computing resources, often referred to as a “cloud,” provide one or more services to users. These services may be categorized according to service types, which may include for examples, applications/software, platforms, infrastructure, virtualization, and servers and data storage. The names of service types are often prepended to the phrase “as-a-Service” such that the delivery of applications/software and infrastructure, as examples, may be referred to as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), respectively.
The term “cloud-based services” or, more simply, “cloud services” refers not only to services provided by a cloud, but also to a form of service provisioning in which cloud customers contract with cloud service providers for the online delivery of services provided by the cloud. Cloud service providers (CSPs) manage a public, private, or hybrid cloud to facilitate the online delivery of cloud services to one or more cloud customers.
A cloud exchange may allow private networks of a customer of the cloud exchange to be interconnected to any other customer of the cloud exchange at a common point, thereby allowing direct exchange of network traffic between the networks of the customers. Customers may include network carriers (or network service providers), enterprises, and other users of cloud services offered by one or more CSPs. One example use of a cloud exchange is to interface a group of customers to a group of CSPs. Each CSP may provide customer access to a “cloud” computing network, wherein the customer stores, manages, and processes data on a network of remote servers rather than on the local server or personal computer of the customer.